1/27/2009
SURFshare gives researchers and lectors active role
Twelve innovation/collaboration projects have been approved for the SURFshare programme and will start at the end of January 2009. All of these projects have the same objective, namely to promote knowledge dissemination via the Internet. In this new round of projects, the SURFshare programme allots an active role to researchers and “lectors” (who organise knowledge networks): the main thing is not the infrastructure but the user. The grant from the SURFshare programme comes to over € 630.000 on a total budget of € 1.220.000. The year-long innovation projects were submitted by institutions of higher education.
There was a big response to the 2008 call for tenders, with institutions of higher education submitting a total of nineteen project proposals. One condition for receiving a grant is that a project must contribute to improving the Dutch knowledge infrastructure. In an internationally competitive knowledge economy, it is essential for the knowledge generated to find its way to researchers, educators, business and industry, and society in general. The Internet offers a great many new ways of ensuring that this actually happens, but the question is how we can use the Internet most effectively and efficiently.
With this new round of projects, the SURFshare programme is taking a further step towards making research material available online, encouraging Web-based collaboration, and knowledge dissemination among Universities of Applied Sciences. The projects will go a long way towards meeting the needs of users, i.e. scientists, scholars, and researchers, but also lectors. The previous call for tenders (2007) in the SURFshare programme emphasised infrastructure. The new projects focus primarily on the user. The infrastructure is basically in place, and it is now up to users to actually utilise it. What works and what doesn’t? How does one actually go about creating an enriched publication, an article supplemented by research data, simulations, multimedia files, etc.? Is this a pleasure or a pain? How can you work together efficiently via a “collaboratory”, i.e. a Web-based collaboration environment for the research process? How do scientists and scholars respond when they have the option to do so? What can you do to assist lectors in disseminating knowledge of practice-based research among the public more effectively?
Highly motivated and enthusiastic project teams will start work at the end of January 2009. Each project will do so in its own way, leading to a wide range of activities, including developing technical aids, carrying out research, improving existing experimental services, and ultimately presenting the final results to the SURFshare community and the higher education sector as a whole.
The twelve projects that have been awarded grants are:
Knowledge dissemination at Universities of Applied Sciences
• National Knowledge Forum for Care and Treatment of Addiction [LKV - Landelijk Kennisplein Verslavingszorg]
• Automotive Knowledge Bank for Universities of Applied Sciences [HBO Automotive Kennisbank]
• DIGIPUB – Digital Publication environments [DIGIPUB – Digitale Publicatieomgevingen]
• FUTURE – Thematised Access to Expertise, Knowledge & Research for SMEs, Students and Experts [TOEKOMST – Themagericht Ontsluiten van Expertise, Kennis & Onderzoek voor MKB-ers, Studenten & Ter zake deskundigen]
Enriched publications
• JALC – Journal of Archaeology in the Low Countries, enriched publications in Dutch archaeology
• DatapluS – Repositories for Enhanced Survey Publications
• ESCAPE – Enhanced Scientific Communication by Aggregated Publications Environments
• Theses Plus – Enriched theses in the Utrecht repository
• Veteran Tapes – Enriched publication based on multidisciplinary re-use of qualitative research files
Collaboratories
• Tales of the Revolt Collaboratory: Sharing, Enhancing and Disseminating Sources
• Hublab 2 – Toward successful implementation of the Liferay platform in historical research
• Virtual Knowledge Studio Collaboratory – Understanding Scholarly Collaboration in Practice
About the SURFshare programme
The aim of SURFshare is to provide better access to high-quality scientific and scholarly knowledge using the very latest ICT technology. This is possible because ICT not only speeds up standard communication processes but changes the nature of the knowledge chain itself. The growing number of facilities for knowledge sharing and dissemination mean that publication, tools (models, algorithms, visualisations) and research data are increasingly interwoven. SURFfoundation’s intention in the SURFshare-programme is to create a common infrastructure that will facilitate access to research information and make it possible for researchers to share scientific and scholarly information.